Bitcoin Audible

Read_904 - The Op_Return Wars of 2014

16 snips
Sep 19, 2025
The podcast dives into the intriguing history of the OP_RETURN wars from 2014, examining how Bitcoin's culture may have discouraged decentralized applications, pushing them towards Ethereum instead. Highlights include a debate over technical limitations and miner filtering, along with community backlash against certain proposals. The discussion emphasizes that cultural factors, rather than just technical ones, played a crucial role in shaping developer choices and the future of dApps in the crypto landscape.
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INSIGHT

Culture Drove dApp Migration

  • Bitcoin culture, not just technical limits, shaped where dApps landed.
  • Developers discouraged non-monetary use, pushing many projects to other chains.
ANECDOTE

Counterparty's Early Hack

  • Counterparty launched in early 2014 to enable tokens and a distributed exchange on Bitcoin.
  • It initially encoded protocol data into multisig scripts before later using OP_RETURN.
INSIGHT

OP_RETURN Was A Deliberate Brake

  • OP_RETURN created a provably prunable output to limit chain bloat.
  • Bitcoin Core initially limited OP_RETURN relay to 40 bytes to discourage data dumping.
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